On her second full-length album, Sugar Tree (Take 'er Easy Records), Franc Graham's songs are seductive and swampy, offering up mystery and poetry, written around the lowest strings of her guitar, and arranged around sultry, addictive grooves. Franc has carved her own space at the edge of pop music, sounding more like herself than anyone else - no small feat these days. When Franc opened for Lucinda Williams on her Essence tour, Lucinda referred to herself as a "Franc Graham convert."

Franc began writing songs as a teenager in rural Durham, Pennsylvania. Several years of classical guitar training led to her pick-free playing, but she soon dropped traditional chord patterns, gravitating toward loosely structured, groove-based songs. Graham, who is also a visual artist, studied acting and art during her college years, but ultimately music took over. Her first demo tape inspired the owner of The Plough & Stars, a Cambridge rock institution, to offer her a year-long residency. Since then she's established a strong fan base playing Boston and Cambridge rock clubs, having built her band with the best local and regional talent and sharing the stage with such greats as Lucinda Williams, Odetta and NRBQ . Franc's voice can be heard singing on Sesame Street animation shorts, and her first album, the highly acclaimed, It is Good, is heavily featured in an independent films.

The recording sessions for Sugar Tree maintained the organic feel of her live appearances with improvisation around Franc's core of rhythmic guitar and vocals. Drummers Billy Conway (Morphine) and Eric Paull (Clem Snide) heard the songs just days before the sessions. Graham kept her scratch vocals on "Prayer," and some of Chris Rival's guitar parts were played live in the control room during recording basics. Graham, DJ Pacey Foster, and producer Rival added an eclectic blend of instruments including guitars, clavinet, casio and turntables. Among the songs on Sugar Tree is a tribute to Mark Sandman of Morphine, called "Mystery Book." It's the only song, she says, that she wrote in one sitting and it is the most traditional in style.

Steady, The Franc Graham Band's latest album, recorded with her current band and special guests Jay Bellerose, Paul Bryon and Pacey Foster, is due out in the fall of 2006.